MIDDLE EAST: States remain suspicious of human rights groups in a region where torture is said to be routine, writes Deaglán de Bréadún in Bahrain
Members of the G8 group of advanced industrial states agreed at the weekend with representatives of Middle East countries to set up a "Foundation for the Future," with funding of $50 million dollars to promote political and civil rights in the region.
But the meeting of some three dozen foreign ministers and other senior politicians held in Manama, capital of Bahrain, could not agree on the wording of a joint statement on the promotion of political rights in the Middle East.
As a result, the expected "Bahrain declaration" was not issued at the end of the conference, the second "Forum for the Future" to take place in the region. The key issue at stake was control over the distribution of funds and resources from the Foundation for the Future, with some Middle East countries seeking to confine grants and other assistance to organisations which had been given government recognition.
However, a senior State Department official, Scott J Carpenter, told The Irish Times the foundation would be run by a "completely independent" board and there would be "no government representation whatsoever". He continued: "They will be private individuals. Those private individuals will be of such calibre that people will not question their legitimacy."
The chair and most of the board members would be from the region. In the case of both the foundation and a separate Fund for the Future, aimed at promoting small and medium businesses, Mr Carpenter said: "We don't envision that governments will be able to dictate where and how the organisations make their decisions." But a number of governments in the region, with Egypt reported to be in the lead, prevented the two-day conference from issuing a final statement. US sources said there was disagreement over a passage in the draft declaration which undertook "to expand democratic practices, to enlarge participation in political and public life and to foster the roles of civil society", including non-governmental organisations. Egypt reportedly wished to stipulate that these NGOs be "legally registered" under the laws of the country in which they operated.
Many believe this would mean that any organisation opposing repression in the Middle East would be denied recognition and therefore could not receive financial support from the foundation. The organisation is to have initial funding of $50 million, including $35.5 million from the US and $10 million from Qatar.
An Egyptian human rights activist who attended the two-day event, Bahey El Din Hassan, said many NGOs throughout the Middle East were being denied a licence to operate by the authorities. He also complained at a press conference that a local Bahraini human rights worker, Abdul Hadi Al Khawaja, was prevented from attending, despite being nominated at a meeting of NGOs the previous week in Doha.
Mr Hassan also said torture was "routine and systematic" in many Middle East countries.
Meanwhile, a street demonstration at the end of the conference by members of the Shia Muslim community in Bahrain, which highlighted levels of poverty and unemployment in the country, went off peacefully.
The 150-strong US delegation at the Bahrain conference was led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said the foundation would look to "indigenous reformers" who would promote "grassroots organisations" for the development of democracy and that grants would be provided for that purpose.